tutu

10 hours ago, balletlover08 said:

Exactly what I was thinking! I guess it makes sense since Copeland is paired with Cornejo right? I thought Skylar did great for her first few times running through it! I'm sure she will be great if she gets the chance! 

Agreed.  I don’t think of Brandt as a natural swan queen, but those early rehearsal videos on her Instagram story looked promising.

Separately: thanks to the advice of those on this board, I made my own subscription with Smirnova/Kim Bayadère, and both the Osipova/Hallberg Giselle and R&J.  I think it’s unlikely I’ll be in a position to make all three, but all the exchange information provided here has convinced me to make the plunge.  Thanks especially to those who alerted that there was no exchanging in to these performances—you helped me finalize my selection.

Landed on this student newspaper story about NYCB’s Christina Clark choreographing for Columbia University’s student ballet company, Columbia Ballet Collaborative.  The story also notes that ABT’s Gabe Stone Shayer is choreographing.

I remember that the group received some press some years ago, but I haven’t watched a performance.  Has anyone seen them recently? Is it worth the trip?

3 hours ago, canbelto said:

Irina Kolpakova has stated that her job is to support all the dancers of ABT, not make casting decisions. She says she is able to maintain good relationships with everyone bc she does not involve herself in casting, but merely coaching and support. She said in an interview that when dancers cry, her job is to get them to stop crying. 

I know I’m neither the first nor the last to express this sentiment, but Kolpakova is truly a treasure.

15 minutes ago, Leah said:

(This is in response to the thread in general, not one particular person.)  Money is the main means in which justice is carried out in this country. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting money from someone who has wronged you. This is the way American law works. If you don’t like it there are other places you can go. It’s because of this legal system that we enjoy the kind of freedoms and safety standards that are uncommon elsewhere. There is nothing wrong with contingency either. It ensures that those who are unable to normally afford a day in court can seek justice. (These are the people who are usually most harmed by those in power.) It further democratizes the legal system. 

... 

Edit: Just to be clear, civil cases for monetary relief are generally a lot easier to win than criminal cases, which require proof beyond a reasonable doubt. That is a very tough hill to climb, especially in sex-related cases where the issue usually comes down to a he said-she argument over consent. Civil actions will usually require a preponderance of the evidence. Thus criminal charges were likely not a viable option for Waterbury.

Thanks for this, @Leah.  Really appreciate the way you articulated this.

26 minutes ago, cobweb said:

I remember seeing it maybe 4 years ago. I particularly remember how beautiful Rebecca Krohn and Russell Janzen were. I think it was before Janzen was promoted to principal, so that might help pinpoint when it was. As I recall, they fielded two casts including a bunch of debuts, so I was assumed it would be coming back the next year, but it didn't. I would love to see it again. 

I think I saw the same casting in that period — I also remember being awed by Rebecca Krohn.

20 hours ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

She was indeed! But then she was great in everything. I could never understand why her career didn't get more traction—to my eyes, she was a more interesting dancer than some who made it to the soloist (and even principal) ranks. Not just technically strong—actually interesting. She was in my fantasy cast for a lot of things. I will miss her.

I feel the same way — she has a real presence. I’m really glad to hear that she’ll still be dancing, and I hope she gets exciting opportunities in Monte Carlo. We’ll have to hope that the company tours the states soon!

Oh wow. Wellington’s been one of my favorites, and I’m going to miss seeing her onstage. Here’s hoping she enjoys her next steps, whatever they may be.

Got to see a nice T&V tonight. Teuscher is lyrical and soft in the role, Stearns bobbled the tours/pirouettes from fifth sequence but was otherwise adept, the demi men (Sebastian, Forster, Frenette, Royal) looked strong, and Williams sparkled among the demi women. This isn’t necessarily a T&V on par with City Ballet’s, but it’s quite good nonetheless, and ABT brings something new and different to the ballet.

I had to leave after the first act due to some work surprises, but they also announced a number of cast changes in Seasons — maybe another BA poster will be able to report back.

12 hours ago, Buddy said:

Sunday, Kimin Kim was still in St. Petersburg perfoming Le Corsaire with Oxana Skorik. They both looked great as usual on video.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, he will be performing La Bayadere in California with Alina Somova.

That’s a lot of distance to cover in two days.

I wonder if he needed an airplane ?  😊

Well, it is Kim — given how high he flies in his variations, he may be able to skip the airport 😂

Should be an awe-inspiring performance. I’m jealous of everyone in Costa Mesa!

Love to see all these reports on Shakirova. I’ve been watching videos of her for a couple years now, and in those short clips, she’s struck me as a really charismatic performer with killer technique. Glad to hear that she delivers in live performance! I’m now all the more eager to see her onstage someday...

2 hours ago, cobweb said:

For yesterday's TPC#2, I see that Davide Riccardo was subbed in as one of the demisoloist men. Did anyone note how he did? He really stood out to me at the SAB workshop I think it was 2 years ago, and this seems to be one of his first featured roles. 

If he is who I think he is (I’m not totally familiar with him), he had an absolutely princely demeanor and seemed like a sure and stable partner. Spartak Hoxha also was good.

12 hours ago, fondoffouettes said:

I had no idea it was a debut, and would have never guessed it. She seemed really at ease in the (not easy) role, and yes, I think "expansiveness" is an appropriate descriptor for her dancing. It's just a pity she wears the nearly the same (or is it exactly the same?) costume as the demi-soloist girls. She deserves to stand out visually. 

MacKinnon was great tonight — she’s got more than enough technique to handle the role, with lovely amplitude in her jumps, wonderful articulation in the quick sections (something that you don’t always see with tall dancers), and those long, long limbs. She projected joy throughout.

Gordon did end up performing in TCP2 tonight. While he’s not quite tall enough to work with this cast, and he’s not quite up to Angle’s level in partnering (I mean, who is?), he acquitted himself well and had thrilling solos. Bouder, meanwhile, was incredible, and clearly seasoned in the role.

Sarah Villwock was a shining star in one of the demi spots, and I rued, again, that she’ll be leaving us before we get to see her in a major role. Here’s hoping she gets many, many opportunities at PNB. I get the impression that Villwock may be a pretty special dancer, and that we in NYC may have only seen a fraction of what she’s capable of.

As for the rest of the program: 

Serenade looked fantastic. It’s always great to see City Ballet dancers so at home in the ballet, and Lauren Lovette, Emilie Gerrity, and Erica Peirera just keep getting better and better. All three seem happier and more relaxed onstage this season. The corps also looked excellent, and I was struck, as always, by the level of talent among the more experienced corps women. 

Summerspace was ... fine. I’m not a huge fan of Cunningham, and while ballet dancers are capable of performing the steps, they’re still ballet dancers, not modern dancers. It’s like they’re working in another physical language without fluency. Andrew Veyette and Lydia Wellington seemed closest to “getting it.”

All in all, a nice night at the ballet.

(I do have to note, though, that Alec Knight’s hair is truly distracting. I really thought it couldn’t be that bad, and then I saw it onstage and couldn’t look away. The man’s got talent and presence to spare — if only he could get a new dye job?)

11 hours ago, Drew said:

At the time of her promotion, she wasn't just in her mid-thirties she also had been through a very bad injury/surgery etc. If I had to speculate, then I would wonder if the injury she suffered not that long before the promotion -- an injury that kept her out for something like a year -- might have played a bigger role in limiting some of her purely technical accomplishments than any endorsements she did.  (Heck, if Copeland had been promoted sooner, we would have seen more of her in the big classical roles pre-injury and could have evaluated her in that context.)

 

Yeah, per Wikipedia, Copeland’s 37 now, and was 33 when she was promoted. Isn’t late 30s when most start to give up the most challenging roles (with some exceptions like the ageless Gillian Murphy)? Especially when they’ve had injuries on the level that Copeland has? As to age, Susan Jaffe retired at 40; Irina Dvorovenko at 40; Xiomara Reyes at 42. Julie Kent retired at 46, but I’m not sure that everyone has the fondest memories of the last years of her career.

As for injuries, Tiler Peck is around 30 years old, one of the greatest technicians in ballet, and has been out with a herniated disc for months now, though she seems to be on track to return. David Hallberg had horrific injuries. Ballet is, unfortunately, what it is — catastrophic injuries are not uncommon and not necessarily attributable to one’s commercial opportunities.

Ballet is a brief and brutal career.

3 minutes ago, Novice123 said:

Up in the first ring, somebody continued to use their cell phones throughout the entire performance.  

Texting or talking on the phone? (Both would make me want to scream!)

w/r/t Brandt, I'm wondering if she and Bell are also preparing for a gala appearance or a guest debut at another company? I can think of more than a few dancers who tried out some of the classic roles guesting in smaller companies or abroad. Some of them went on to perform the roles with their home companies, others not.

On 9/8/2019 at 11:20 AM, Kathleen O'Connell said:

Hear the Dance with Silas Farley

Corps de Ballet Member Silas Farley explores our expansive repertory, from the earliest Balanchine works to more recent classics, giving listeners an insider’s take on the Company’s rich history with Hear the Dance. Taking on a new ballet each episode, Farley is joined by many key players, from original cast members to ballet masters to current NYCB dancers, who share their personal experiences performing and coaching works from our illustrious repertory.

Really excited for this. Farley’s so, so good at these kinds of discussions — extremely knowledgeable, does his research, and has a great voice and presence. 

15 hours ago, nanushka said:

Week two casting is finally up.

Surprised and a bit disappointed that Stanley’s not yet cast in Opus 19/The Dreamer (especially since he was recently featured in a promo video for the ballet). Maybe later in the season?

On 8/14/2019 at 10:56 PM, canbelto said:

I admit being guilty to this. I also thought that the tired performances that were without her usual spark were a result of the weight loss. Now I know that it was probably first-trimester fatigue!

But about how a dancer "looks" onstage I was once standing next to a Russian ballerina renowned for her long, lithe body lines. And while she looked like a million bucks and was indeed very slim, I was surprised to see she did not look nearly as waif-like as she did onstage. Up close I could see how much MUSCLE definition she had -- her arms had the taut muscles of a professional athlete. What she does have onstage is incredible proportions that allow her to look extremely thin. Offstage if you had told me she was a professional runner I would have believed you. 

I was thinking it too, just not posting! It was a good reminder for me.

I’ve experienced the same thing (and also the flip side — meeting dancers who are larger onstage but near-skeletal in person). Bone structure and muscle distribution really determine a lot about the way somebody appears on the stage, and there’s a limit to how much diet or cross-training can alter that.

6 hours ago, Petso said:

I have a question in general for you "insiders" 😉

I´m from Germany and I just started to follow the ballet life in different countries. My observation is that in Russia and Paris for example the female dancers have to be thin as stick and have to embody the fragility of an "Odette", no ifs and buts, everything else is "fat" and "un-showable". No matter what that do to the health of the dancers if they aren´t naturally skinny. In America, to my joy, there seem to be healthy athletic women on top like Misty or Ashley Bouder for example, and even Kathy Morgan got a job with a way more healthy body weight than she had in her beginnigs I think. So I was all the more surprised when I looked at the instagram account of Joy after her announcement - and was, let´s say, just shocked (that´s all I will say about this theme). Were my observations wrong? Are there so big difference between the companies? Or between soloists and corps?

 

So, one may note that the Mariinsky has dancers like Renata Shakirova and Maria Bulanova, and the US has dancers like Bouder and Copeland, as you’ve noted, and generally, in all of those companies, those dancers are more the exception than the rule.

But if you’ve ever seen the dancers that you’ve mentioned above up close in real life, you’ll realize that they’re also very, very lean — when you see a difference in aesthetics, it’s more often about the way their muscles are distributed and their individual bone structures than any particular body fat percentage. So it doesn’t, necessarily, make complete sense to think about it in terms of “healthy” and “skinny”; it might make more sense to think about it in terms of “body type” (that is, the way they came out of the womb, rather than the way they condition their instruments today).

So why, then, might someone see more of a variety of body types in American stages? One factor is the difference in the dance education systems. In Russia, and also in China, the ballet schools are connected to the state, with significant government funding, and many students are selected for intense training at an early age, based on an evaluation of the physical potential and “lines” they possess as children, before they receive significant training.

But the process by which the elite US ballet schools take in and produce students is fundamentally different, and that leads to some changes in the dancers they produce. Many of the company-connected schools (such as those connected to New York City Ballet or San Francisco Ballet) take their star students only for the last two or so years of training, after students have completed the majority of their training at local schools. There’s generally a shift in the selection process for the elite schools for those last two to three years — pure physical potential is less heavily emphasized, while already developed skills (i.e., technique, musicality) start to become more and more important. 

(Side note: There is an enormously influential American ballet school that trains children intensely at an earlier age (on a schedule that likely more closely approximates that of the state-run schools), Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, but it also takes all comers, without requiring that prospective students pass an audition process like the Russian schools’. Many dancers who trained at this school, including Bouder, became stars in American ballet companies—and many of them have more “athletic” bodies.)

All of this is to say that you may not be witnessing the results of a particular pressure or aesthetic preference (or a particular difference in the diets of individual dancers), but rather, a difference in the “body types” of the dancers who reach the top. All the same, most major American companies have many, many, many more dancers who look like what you’ve identified as the “Russian” look than the Bouders, Copelands, or Morgans of the ballet world.

P.S. I know that I am not in a position to evaluate the healthiness of a particular individual from photographs or videos alone, and I’d sound a word of caution. Just recently, posters on this forum were quite concerned about an American dancer at a major US company looking shockingly thin, only for the news to come out that at the time of the performances where she looked particularly slender, she was in the early stages of her pregnancy!)

On 7/24/2019 at 1:25 PM, Kathleen O'Connell said:

I'm actually feeling more positive about ABT than I have in a long while. I think a decade of Ratmansky has given them the makings of a company style; there is some up-and-coming talent that I find worth watching; and finally, I like that they're relying less and less on airlifted in talent. I'm cautiously hopeful and willing to be patient.  

Me too. A number of the homegrown dancers really seem to have blossomed. Off the top of my head, Boylston, Shevchenko, Hurlin, and Brandt are examples of ABT dancers who have had the technical chops for a long time, but are now developing presence in a new way, at their own speeds—maybe because they’re getting more stage time, maybe because they’re getting more time working with Ratmansky, maybe something else? Whatever it is, there’s something more to a lot of these artists lately, and it’s inspired me to buy more tickets. 

2 hours ago, pherank said:

Artists love "troubling".  😉
But many people mistake that for art, which is really a different thing, and not dependent upon a particular feeling or impression. I suppose Kochetkova wanted to appear brave, and honest, for allowing the Bel piece to go forward as is, but the audience might still be left with the wrong impression.

I was debating using the word “artifice” instead of “art” above, but wanted to avoid many of the connotations. I think that might have made my meaning unclear.

I don’t want to say that Bel makes up the themes of isolation, dance as identity, and the struggle to self-identify apart from dance out of wholecloth. Those are sentiments that I’ve heard expressed over and over by dancers and former dancers in public media and private conversations.

(Indeed, the brutal brevity of the ballet career makes these issues all the more apparent, because the cutting-off of the pursuit occurs so early! In contrast, to, say, a member of the New York Philharmonic who must also dedicate herself to her craft from an early age and devote herself to her art form, but who retires from the workforce at the same age as most of society, a ballet dancer usually reforms herself and her art form when she’s got at least another 25+ years where she’s got to find another day job and pursuit—another way to pass the majority of her waking hours!)

What I refer to as “art” and perhaps should have called “artifice” above is the amplification and exaggeration of that theme — the editing work to make something (troubling or not) apparent. I mean to say that I don’t know how much the amplification of what seem to be very real, constant themes in the lives of ballet dancers I know (and in chronicles by those I don’t) reflects day-to-day existence, or Kochetkova’s own thoughts and feelings.

Maybe “character creation” would be a better way of describing this. I don’t know how much Bel used the “Masha Machine” and the idea of Kochetkova the performer/Facebook conversant as a vessel for ideas about art and identity and ephemerality and loneliness, and how much reflects Kochetkova herself. 

Now that I think about this, Bel is likely doing this on purpose! “Masha Machine” looks at once like authentic accounts of their conversation, but we see moments of Bel saying he doesn’t have to include one of her responses (and we don’t know which). We see grainy rendering of YouTube videos, but not all of those that are sent in the thread. Bel doesn’t pretend that what we see is unedited — he shows us selections and snippets and makes it clear we don’t see the whole. We’re grappling with whether we’re seeing a version of Kochetkova’s self or her created character or her image and physicality as vessel for another’s voice, but she’s fundamentally unknown, and Bel makes us see all of that at once. Kochetkova describes learning that her key to the second act of Giselle is to never make eye contact with anyone on stage, and I think of the way that a performer usually can’t see the audience beyond the lights—here is the artist, whom we only know in images. 

Sorry for the rambling — I’m still working through what was so affecting (maybe not troubling) about “Masha Machine.” If I hadn’t seen the work and read a description of it, I’d think the whole thing was pretension hanging on preciousness. Something about it is still in my head, though!

9 hours ago, JuliaJ said:

Jerome Bel's "Masha Machine" had the audience read text messages projected onto a screen for around 15 minutes... it went on forever and came off as kind of narcissistic on Kochetkova's part. In the texts she talks about how she's "sick of dealing with stupid people" in company life and "doesn't have the patience to teach" after she retires, but she says she wants to run a company??? I didn't get it. In the text conversation we had to watch grainy YouTube videos of some of her performances, including one where she's a kid dancing at the Bolshoi Ballet school, and in the texts she talks about how all of the parents of other kids hated her because she was so much better. The whole piece read as "look how brilliant and talented I am / I'm too good for this life though." 

To my mind, the excerpts that Bel selected were merciless. The piece seemed to work to portray Kochetkova as profoundly isolated, without a home base or meaningfully relationships, turning to her talent as her all-consuming, self-defining characteristic, without a sense of who she as a person is apart from her talent—basically, emphases of emptiness and isolation. (If you've read Toni Bentley's Winter Season, or watched the Wendy Whelan documentary, I think it played on some of the same themes of dance as identity, though Bel amplified it to an almost cruel degree.) I don't know how much of Bel's portrayal was art and how much was reality, but it was really, really troubling.

On 6/26/2019 at 4:06 PM, pherank said:

The Traveling Ballerina has posted the casting and choreographer information for Kochetkova's Joyce Theater appearances (the Joyce Theater website doesn't have this information yet).  A few San Francisco friends perform as well.

Program Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq3T0ecWYdI


Maria Kochetkova: Catch Her If You Can

BACH DUET (from NEW SUITE)
Choreographer: William Forsythe
Dancers: Maria Kochetkova, Sebastian Kloborg

PAINTING GREYS
Choreographer: Myles Thatcher
Dancer: Carlo Di Lanno

TUÉ
Choreographer: Marco Goecke
Dancer: Drew Jacoby

DEGUNINO
Choreographer: Marcos Morau
Dancer: Maria Kochetkova

SWAN LAKE PAS DE DEUX
Choreographer: David Dawson
Dancers: Sofiane Sylve, Carlo Di Lanno

RACHEL, NEVADA
Choreographer: Drew Jacoby
Dancers: Maria Kochetkova, Drew Jacoby

AT THE END OF THE DAY
Choreographer: David Dawson
Dancers: Maria Kochetkova, Sebastian Kloborg

MASHA MACHINE
Choreographer: Jérôme Bel
Dancer: Maria Kochetkova

July 16 @ 7:30pm
July 17 @ 7:30pm
July 18 @ 8:00pm
July 19 @ 8:00pm
July 20 @ 2:00pm
July 20 @ 8:00pm
July 21 @ 2:00pm

 

I saw the performance last night. The excerpts are very, very, very short, and don’t leave much of an impression (perhaps because we’re only getting the smallest taste — the tapas approach to programming an evening doesn’t leave me full). Jerome Bel’s “Masha Machine” is haunting, but is less dance, more incisive theater/multimedia.

Brian Seibert’s Times review exactly captures my feelings on this program: mostly forgettable, despite killer performances by dancers like Sylve and Jacoby, with a punch in the stomach at the end.

7 hours ago, fondoffouettes said:

I'm curious about that, too. It's interesting that she's tagged balletconrad. I wasn't sure if she was still working with him, but apparently she is. 

 

Wasn’t sure how I felt about balletconrad after that weird video with him — but I hope this means that he’s helping Copeland dance without pain!